Time To Step It Up And Help More Wildlife…
- Alana H
- Jul 20
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 14
It’s Time To Fund A Salary For Myself AND Staff. I Am Going To Explain Exactly Why…
UKWT has always been a celebration of the fact that we ALL matter, whatever/whoever we are. UKWT focuses on what we can do to celebrate & boost one another - Wildlife Rescuers, Vet Practices, UKWT Organisers & Drivers - to help wildlife together. We play our part in filling in the transport gap around the UK, to get wildlife to emergency care.
WHEN WE STARTED… I set up UKWT because I noticed that around 1/3rd of wildlife weren't getting to emergency care just due to transport issues. When UKWT first launched in August 2020... We used to coordinate emergency transports for wildlife casualties/orphans (securing rescue spaces and organising Drivers). We transported almost 600 wild lives & provided advice/support for another 2000, up to June 2022.
JUST AFTER WE STARTED, IN JANUARY 2021, I CAME TO UNDERSTAND JUST HOW UNREGULATED THE UK WILDLIFE RESCUE INDUSTRY WAS… This lack of regulation means that almost anyone can set up as a 'Rescue' (you could do it right now, with kind intentions, setting up a social media account and choosing a name for your Rescue and inviting members of the public to bring you wildlife). [*Please note that I am NOT advocating this practice. To do the above would be the WORST thing that you could do for our UK wildlife. To truly be of help to poorly/orphaned wildlife you require a significant level of knowledge & training AND you need a strong, working relationship with your local Veterinary Practice (it is not enough to just be a client there).]
Since almost anyone can set up as a 'Rescue’, unfortunately lots of well intentioned people do BUT they often have no training, no suitable premises, they don’t work with a vet (which means no access to the right medications, no access to veterinary diagnostic tools & support like x-rays, blood tests and life saving operations) and they often have little to no knowledge at all of the animals they are taking in or what injuries/illnesses they might be experiencing.
As a transport network for wildlife, this has led to a lot of extra steps being put in place to ensure that we are always doing our best to take wildlife to places who CAN provide the right care. [Essentially, it felt the same as creating a transport network of willing Drivers with cars and then realising that there weren’t any proper roads to drive on, to get animals from A-B, so we ended up creating the ‘road map’ ourselves. I realised that I either closed UKWT - as I didn’t actually have a map to run off - or I & others needed to come together to create that map.]
HENCE, THE FOUNDING OF THE WILDLIFE CARE BADGE… The WCB represented the uniting of Veterinary Professionals & Wildlife Rehabbers, to enable the wildlife rescue industry to self regulate itself. It required a year of development & launched in February 2022.
The WCB is currently the ONLY Wildlife Rescue map/database in the UK that features Wildlife Rescues who have proven standards of care, akin to actual licensing (annual onsite checks, exams on wildlife care passed & high welfare practices proven through record keeping and an ongoing vet relationship, every quarter throughout the year). Without the WCB Map, UKWT cannot run. We rely on it to know where to take wildlife to, entirely.
JUNE 2022 - DECEMBER 2024 WERE EXCEPTIONALLY BUSY YEARS, BEHIND THE SCENES. THE IMPACT OF THESE EFFORTS CAN BE SEEN TODAY…
WCB PROGRESS, THEN TO NOW: From the WCB launch in February 2022 to December 2024, an enormous level of commitment was required, to give the WCB a chance at success. For the first 2 years of the WCB being launched, we discovered that essentially all we could do was build trust, to prove that the WCB truly reflected the wildlife rescue industry self regulating - and, most importantly, self supporting - itself, to ensure that Wildlife Rescuers & Wildlife alike are cared for. We had our first waves of WCB Holders, we ran Compassion Fatigue Support Sessions, Webinars, Vet & Rehabber singular and joint zoom events, we developed templates to support Veterinary Professionals & Wildlife Rescuers to build mutually strong relationships, we created platforms to share about important cases & we started to provide grants for WCB Holders & much more. By mid 2024, we had a foundation of WCB Holders who were renewing their badge every year and bringing on new WCB Holders, by leading by example. The WCB Map is now growing the fastest it ever has, in 2025. We have been approached by a number of the UK’s largest animal welfare organisations, to find out about our work and to potentially work together. We have also recently extended our services by formally hiring a ‘Wildlife Care Advisor’ to support WCB Holders and Vet Professionals on cases and to help advise any Rehabber on how to provide care to at least a minimum standard, to wildlife casualties & orphans.
UKWT PROGRESS, THEN TO NOW: By June 2022, demand for UKWT services had grown so much that our phone line was ringing off the hook and we lacked the sufficient Admin Volunteer support to cope with the demand. Rescues, Vet Practices & members of the public were waiting hours just to get through to us... I realised that there was a better way for us to run, that would operate more efficiently: I took the phone line down - so that we were no longer coordinating calls - and instead started allocating teams of our UKWT Drivers to Vet Practices & Rescues, so that they could have immediate access to our Drivers (Drivers that we had recruited, equipped and were funding fuel for) instead of having to wait for us to answer their call. Members of the public could then ask Rescues & Practices direct for transport help, instead of having to go through us. It took up to December 2024 to fully manifest this structure (mostly because it relied so heavily on the WCB being a success, so a great deal of my focus had to be invested there). I am so pleased that today, the results from the huge amount of work that has been put into both the WCB and the new UKWT Transport Structure can be seen, in the fact that we’re transporting almost triple the wildlife numbers every month, to emergency care, than we ever were up to June 2022 - we have transported almost 1000 animals now, to emergency care - AND the new UKWT structure has pretty limitless scalability, which I’m building on every day, so that soon, ‘no wild life will be left without care.’ We have 44 Drivers Teams running (some still tiny, some substantial) and another 2 about to be set up for Vet Practices this week.
And Now?
Now it’s time to finally step it up and take UKWT to a new professional level, with funded staff who can commit - between us - a minimum of 85hrs a week, EVERY WEEK, throughout the year, to growing the UKWT Transport Structure that will one day ensure that every wild life found by someone who can’t drive (or dropped in at a Vet Practice) gets a second chance at a new wild existence.
This is something I first started setting into motion in 2023, but then it became clear that the priority was actually to more firmly establish the WCB and UKWT first. Now that - I hope - we’ve done that, we’ve reached the point that I either get the WCB/UKWT properly funded or we will start to slide backwards.
About Me & My Plans For Funding Staff (And Why)…
I run the WCB & UKWT pretty single handed (with the WCB constantly consulting Wildlife Care Experts for all of the content & necessary decisions, to grow). The daily level of work has become so substantial that I can no longer oversee it all successfully in the day, while working full time in the evenings to cover my own living costs, which is what I was doing. Not only is it unsustainable for my own well being but we really need double the hours put in regularly, all year round, to even begin to help a more significant % of all of the wildlife who are currently falling through the gaps.
This June & July we have transported 295 wild lives so far (and I am writing this on 20th July, with a good chunk of the month to go). To manage this number, I have been on a constantly whirling roundabout of overseeing current Driver Teams, recruiting new Drivers, adding them to Teams, getting requests from new Rescues & Vet Practices for them to have their OWN Teams, setting them up, fundraising to cover our running costs and fuel costs and driver recruitment advert costs and then back to the start to begin again. I’ve been committing between 90-105hrs a week, every week, since May, just to keep on top of it all. And demand will only grow. It’s always growing. The more we help, the more we’re known and the more places ask us for a Drivers Team of their own, for all of the wildlife who are falling through the gaps in their areas.
The only reason I have been able to put in these hours this year is a twist of fate: the house I lived in was repurposed so I had to move which meant that I was temporarily out of work. This was in May. While looking for a new job - and as a result of all of the work put in up to December 2024, I think, and with spring occurring - the WCB and UKWT exploded equally in demand & impact. As I attended interviews for new jobs, I was walking out of them to multiple missed calls and transport requirements that needed overseeing. Subsequently, I have decided that NOW is the time to fully commit - and never give up on - drawing in the funding to provide myself with my first salary in 5 years, to run UKWT AND to fund 4 part time roles too, that will each save multiple wild lives, this year and ongoing.
Funding & Impact...
I try to be fully upfront in all of my work, so that you can make an informed decision as to whether to support UKWT or not. Back in 2023 I drafted a 30+ page business plan that I published on THIS PAGE to share how the funding for staff would have an impact. I have updated the business plan (one of the staff roles has changed) and republished it. You can check it out to see exactly what I’m up to.
There’s multiple ways to fund UKWT staffing requirements...
For Staff (Not Me)...
I have decided that, as I don't know how well the 'fundraising for staff' will go, to begin with, I need to have a minimum amount in the bank upfront to provide at least 6 month contracts to 4 part time roles (adding up to 45hrs a week). So I am fundraising for £15,093 ASAP. As soon as I have that, I will hire the freelance staff - a Driver Support Officer, Driver Recruitment Officer, a Vet Support Officer & a 'Getting Prepared To Help Wildlife Officer' - on a 6 month contract. Over those 6 months, I will be fundraising to hopefully keep them on a rolling contract (I hope that makes sense).
For Me...
As to myself, and my salary, which will be funding 40hrs a week at £13 an hour (ALL staff roles are on £13 an hour, to reflect a living wage) I will bring in what I can each week, totally transparently, so that I am using funds that have been specifically donated to fund my own efforts, and hope to grow funds for myself up to a £2,236 monthly salary that I can reliably live off.
What Will Fundraising For Staff Look Like?
I am adding new 'DONATE' buttons today, onto our website, to make sure that everyone can choose what you wish to donate to, to support us (whether you wish to fund staffing costs, running costs, or a mix of both).
I am also going to be sharing a number of fundraising ideas (see below). All of this will be around my continuing commitment to helping as many wild lives as we can, this summer.
Finally...
When I first started fundraising for staff, we raised an incredibly generous £3917.87 in donations / raffle tickets / other kindnesses. I have kept that money aside for a long time, as it was designated for staff, not running costs. I was also unsure whether I wanted it to go towards our original plan (which was to raise £30,000 for myself and part time staff up front) or to settle on the outline of staff funding above.
With the craziness of this summer and the 'twist' of fate that found me suddenly without an actual income (and the fact that I have just done our accounts up to June 2025 so far, and added up that since I opened UKWT I have spent £2963.42 over 2020 - 2024 and £129.96 in 2025, of my own funds, to keep us going) I have decided to allocate the £3917.87 towards 'my' first salary allowance. From this salary allowance I am going to pay off £3159.38 in debts that have arisen from my own funding of the WCB & UKWT over the years. Covering these losses leaves £824.49 that I will start to take for myself as a salary, for July/August 2025. I hope that everyone approves.
I feel excited to have finally taken this step, this year, to move UKWT onto this more professional standing: I think that it will place us in a stronger position to help FAR more animals, which is always and only the point. UKWT matters so much to me - every wild life matters - and I feel relieved to be sharing this plan of action, to hopefully enable our 'BIG VISION' to be a reality, as soon as we possibly can.
